Dubai Fire work photography chance

Happy New Year everyone!
I hope you all have had a wonderful 2013. I know I have and I am really looking forward to 2014. I have so many new things work wise planed in so I am super excited to get started with it all. I just need some more hours in the day to get it all done (is that even possible to get more hours in a day than the 24h there is??) Maybe I should have asked Santa for that? If anyone can make it possible it must me Santa. right!
Well for all of you that are in Dubai at the moment you must be aware that tonight is the nigh you have the chance to photograph the most spectacular fireworks display in the world. Dubai are tonight going for a world record fire work display you see so ours will be so much cooler and bigger and better than any other in the world at least for tonight.
For those of you that are a bit photography interested I am sure that you have already planned out a head of time where you will be standing with your tripod at the strike of 12 tonight.
If you need pointers on how to photograph firework displays take a look at my blog post from last year.
 http://shippeyphotography.blogspot.ae/2012/12/happy-new-year-dubai.html

I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Happy New Year and all the best for 2014!
I hope to see you all in the New Year!!

ps. Do any of you have any new years resolutions?
I have two.
1. is to take more time to play golf (I only managed 2 times in 2013)
2. Keep my office tidier and organised so I easily find stuff. I find stuff now but it is a right mess most of the time. Just take a look at my desk top.

I even have my passport just laying about not good at all. But there is a reason for that which i have a reason for all the stuff to be where they are... I am endless of excuses and might be hard for an outsider to understand but there is an order to all this madness. All the memory cards that are laying about have an order to them. :) Not saying it is a fail proof system could for sure get better! But there is some king of system :)

Over and out for 2013.
Helen

Dubai Sony Grand Prize Winner!!! It is Me!!! Yey!!

Tjohooo!!

I am so happy right now I have just found out that I am the Grand Prize Winner in the Sony #Snapathon Challenge that I was participating in together with 7 other Dubai based photographers.
We all got to test out one of Sony's new wifi camera for smartphones for 10 days, the Sony QX100 camera.
If you follow my blog you will have read about it earlier that it is a very small camera that you can attach to your smartphone or keep it separate and just hold it in our hand while taking a photo or filming. yes I said filming it can do that as well, it is very versatile and handy to have with you when you are out and about. About 6 months ago I changed from a Blackberry Curve to an iPhone5 and i have been amazed what my camera phone can do on my iPhone compared to the camera i had on my blackberry. Now when I have tried the Sony QX100 I literally do not want to leave home without it. I only had it for a test loan for 10 days and now after I have given it back I have caught myself thinking if I only had the Sony QX100 with me now I could capture this image a lot better than I can with only my iPhone5. Especially in low light situation the quality difference is amazing. You can do lovely sunsets with it that your smartphone can never capture in the same way and with great quality minimum of grain in the image, which you usually get a lot of when you photograph in low light with a smartphone.

Me holding the SonyQX100 camera in my hand so the photo is taken with my iPhone5 so not the best quality, I just want to show you how small it is.

Those of you that know me know that I have a daughter that is only 20 months old so I am still bringing her diaper bag with me where ever we go and this little camera fits perfectly in the bag due to its small size. Same thing for my hand bag that I use when I go out and about by myself it fits nicely in that as well and I am not one of those ladies that have a huge bag where you can find everything. 

The Sony QX100 camera is now available across stores in the UAE so if you like gadgets I can highly recommend you to go out and check it out for yourself don't just take my word for it. But you wont regret it.
Since I am the lucky Grand Prize winner I don't only win myself a Sony QX100 camera but I also win a Sony Bravia TV I am not sure who in our family that are more happy about that me or my husband lol.
I have thoroughly enjoyed the experience of being part of the Sony #Snapathon challenge, I liked the fact that they pushed us to take at least 6 different photographs a day, that way they forced us all to really test the camera out to its fullest potential, at least for me since I did not only just want to snap what was in front of me everyday which was a lot of different stuff since this challenge came at a time where we as photographers in Dubai are the most busiest. Our high season was in full swing and still are, which is great! I can't wait to get my winning prize so that I once again get to walk around with my very own Sony QX100 camera at hand all the time. So stay tuned more photos taken with it will for sure be visible here on my blog!
The feature that I enjoy the most on the Sony QX100 camera is the fact that it has Aperture priority mode so you can get excellent shallow depth of field with this little device. It is like having a mini DSLR camera with you all the time! Brilliant!
If you have any questions about the camera please feel free to ask me I will answer them as well as I possibly can, If I don't know the answer I will send the question over to Sony Middle East and they will for sure be able to answer you.
I would like to give a Hugh Thank You to everyone that helped me win this Sony #Snapathon challenge by sharing my photographs on Facebook Thank you!!
-Sony if you ever need someone to test out another of you products in the future please keep me in mind I would love to help you out! :)

Over and out for now.
Helen xx